Second Chances
by imadino.imaeachu
Summary: Not everyone gets a second chance at love. But sometimes, we can get lucky, can't we' Not another Bella Daughter story, and Bella's still seventeen...well, physically, we can say. Yep, total cliche you think, but you might be pleasantly surprised.
1. Chapter 1

A day after he left, I died.

Not literally, as I so often wished I did, but internally; in my mind, I crumpled. Folded, like I was paper. For me, it might as well been that _did_ die, so as that I didn't waste any more breath, or cause anyone else more pain. Because I could plainly see that I was, causing pain to the ones I loved every minute they saw me. Charlie was getting older, and my mother was getting tired in those minutes, which quickly turned into hours, which turned into days. I wanted so desperately to help them, and myself.

But we can't always get what we want, can we?

It was weeks after that day that I was invited to the party.

A big smash, they said. Biggest one of the year. Jessica grudgingly invited me, at the request of the mystery host. She told me that I just _had_ to be there, _had_ to come. It just won't be the same without you, Bella, she said. So, with the life and excitement that only a moldy log could carry out, I obliged.

We drove down the street and stopped at a fairly large house, clad in our little black dresses that I didn't care enough to protest, ringing the door bell. A boy answered, a college-aged boy that was tall and bulky, like he was the quarterback of the football team. He was someone who Jessica would describe hot, with long-ish brown hair and shining blue eyes, and the muscles of someone who went to the gym seven days a week.

But I had stopped believing any man was handsome enough weeks ago.

He grinned at us-or more specifically, me. His eyes, like tigers roaming for meat, took all of me in. The black, skimpy fabric I normally wouldn't be caught dead in clinging to my skin and showing way too much that was necessary. Opening the door wider, he let us inside and stopped to talk to me, of all people, letting Jessica roam elsewhere, probably off to find Mike or the host, or one of her friends so she could gossip about little lonely Bella coming out her hole to come to this party. "So," the boy said, bringing me out of my thoughts. "What's your name?"

I looked up at him unenthusiastically, my dull eyes just staring. "Bella. Bella Swan."

"Well, Bella Swan, can I get you a drink?"

"No."

He frowned. "Why not? You should be enjoying yourself! This is the biggest party of the year! Come on, you _know_ you want to..."

I was about to say no again, about to just walk away. But something in my mind just said to not care. I mean, it's not like anything worse can happen to me. My life was basically over. Love, too, along with all of the happiness that I could have possibly conjured up was gone after that day. I figured that he was just trying to be friends, just trying to make conversation. Maybe he, too, had no one to converse with at this party.

_"Do you really believe that Bella?" _My mind asked me, unbelieving.

I shot back at it. "Just shut up, okay? Maybe I should just let loose for once! God knows I need it..."

And so I smiled at him, a fake, lifeless one. "Yeah, okay. Sure, I'll have a drink."

His eyes glinted as he grinned. "Great. Just stay right here and I'll be right back."

As I stood there in that little corner of the room, wating for him to come back, I battled still with my concience, who was trying to convince me to just run away and leave. To go find Jessica and ask her to take me home. I countered it by saying that she was already angry enough at me, and this would surely piss her off. But still, I did have this odd feeling in my stomach, like there was something wrong here.

The nameless boy came back with two beers in his hands, filled to the brim with the orangey liquid. "There you go, my Bella, one for you and one for me!" He handed one to me, and I instantly felt the coolness of the glass hitting my sweaty palm. The room was hot with the tightly packed bodies, and I was starting to sweat.

As each drop of alchohol slid smoothly down my throat, my concience's voice slowly faded away, until I couldn't hear it any more.

Nameless Boy was getting closer to me every minute, until our bodies were touching. I felt his big hands slide around my waist, pulling me to him. "Hey-you wanna go upstairs?" He whispered, his breath heavy and hot against my cheek.

I knew this was wrong. I knew I should have told him to stop sooner. I should have listened to myself, and thought before I acted. But I couldn't seem to get a clear sentence out, and before I knew it, I was upstairs, on a bed with my dress in a heap on the floor, and Nameless Boy was undoing his jeans. But that wasn't even the most shocking thing I discovered.

No. A week later, I learned I was pregnant.

* * *

It was a few weeks before my nineteenth birthday, and I was anything but in the birthday mood. I was sore and depressed and alone with not even my father or mother to help me. I was in California, in some hotel with Lucy.

I smiled, though, when I thought it. It was the only bright thing in my life right now, my daughter Lucia. _Lucia Emmanuelle Swan_. I don't know quite how I picked that name, but I just did. It reminded me of joy and love, two things I was most definitely lacking in my life at this point. I needed a point though, to live, and Lucy told me that I needed to stay to protect her. She would grow up normal and healthy, and I would make sure she didn't experience or share _any_ of my own pain.

She had been born a week ago, a tiny 6 pounds, 2 ounces. But they let me take her home after those first few days, announcing thatI had perfect little baby girl. I could have almost sworn that I heard a nurse say that day as I walked out of the hospital, "Pity-she's only a baby doll herself, poor thing..." But I tried to shut it out of my mind.

That day I left a message on both of my parents' cell phone, telling them goodbye and that I had to leave. I didn't tell them that I had a baby girl, or where I was going. I just told them I loved them and that I had to leave.

And Lucy and I boarded the plane to California.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

"Lucy, can you pass me that box?"

Lucy rolled her eyes at me, but passed me the box. "Listen, Bella. It's not like we have to get all of the unpacking done in one day. I mean, it's our first day here! And plus, why can't you just do it at 'super speed'?" She made a face. "Seriously, it's embarrasing to have a _mom_ who is the same age as me, has the freaking hottest body _and _looks, and can do practically _everything_ better than me!"

I narrowed my eyes. "Will you be quiet! We really don't want one of the neighbors to hear you!"

She didn't say anything, just kept unpacking from the back of the mover's van. I sighed, remembering the old days when she was so young and unobservant...when she didn't know what had happened to me.

The memory brought the pain, as if I was experiencing it all over again.

The moment after I stepped off the plane and had gotten out of the airport, I carried Lucy in her baby carraige off to the side, where no one could see me, and just cried. I cried for myself and her, not being able to think of how I could possibly raise a baby by myself with the little money I had. I realized how foolish I had been-how foolish I was to think that I could do anything right.

I cried for Lucy for all of the pain and suffering I was going to bring on her. She would grow up alone, with only me and my own problems. She wouldn't have a father to take care of her and help her, to help me. She wouldn't get nice things or anything special with only me working and not even having a college degree to prove I could do a serious job. And, I was barely over eighteen with a baby!

While I was crying, someone jumped on me.

It was a female figure, surely, and hard as a rock. She leaned down and whispered into my ear, her voice low and smooth. "Please, Bella, it's for your own good, I'm sure of it..."

And she bit me.

I groaned, thinking of the pain for three entire days, writhing in a hotel room bed God-knows-where wishing I would die. All sense had lost my brain there. I didn't think of anything-I didn't think of my problems. I didn't think of _him_ or Lucy, or how I was going to get along. And, oddly, even though I was in the most horrifying pain possible, my heart wasn't aching.

For a while Lucy was oblivious to the way her mother never seemed to change. She just thought she was so lucky because her mommy was the prettiest of all her friends'. At parent meetings all of the fathers stared and the mothers glared. They would whisper about me, saying how pretty little Miss Swan neevr married, never went to college. They made their own stories up about how I had a boyfriend and got pregnant and ran away from home. They said I had always had problems. I was probably abused by my parents, they said, and my boyfriend was forceful on me-didn't even care when I had the baby.

They said that I was irresponsible and had made the wrong choices growing up, and that I "wasn't that pretty, anyway." But inside, they were lying. I could tell, from the feeling I got inside me.

...I suppose you could call it my power. And the most useful thing, too, as each mother would say.

But as Lucy got older, she questioned my inhuman beauty and never-changing age. "Hey mom?" She had once asked at age thirteen. "Why do you always have pale skin, even in the summer? And your skin...it's always so cold and hard, like rocks in the winter..."

And then I told her.

She took it surprisingly well, and didn't have much of a reaction. But times changed, and as she was nearing my age, at almost sixteen, she was more like a younger sister than a daughter. So I just told her to call me Bella.

"You know I can't do that, Luce. And will you just stop about me being prettier than you-it's not even that true. You're beautiful."

But Lucy didn't need my power to know the truth. "Okay, so what if I am pretty? It's not even close to-ugh!" She groaned, trying to pick up a box containing a television. "Why is this stupid thing so heavy? And why aren't those guys helping us?" She frowned, looking toward the big man in the truck with the nametag reading "Larry".

And then, if it was possible, my heart stopped.

A boy stepped next to Lucy. He had beautiful auburn hair and the most goreous features. His skin was pale and even through his polo shirt you could see the defined muscles. His eyes were a piercing darkened gold, and as he spoke to Lucy, he looked directly at me-in his eyes a mixture of sadness and shock and happiness and anger-every emotion visible only in the depths of his irises.

"May I help you?"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Okay, if you don't know who this is, there is seriously something wrong with you.

Heather


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Okay guys, thanks for reviewing.

So, here's chapter two, but it's in Lucy's point of view. I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to make the story alternating in between Bella's point of view and her daughter's point of view. It would make a nice, two-different perspectives on Bella and Edward's story, and it would let the reader in on Lucy's thoughts, also.

* * *

Lucy's Point of View:

"May I help you?"

I turned around to see the most shockingly beautiful person I had ever seen in my life. Everything about him was perfect-his bronze-colored hair that shined so amazingly, even in the dull shade of the glowering sky. His skin was whiter than even Bella's-no, actually, it was the same. And he was so inhumanly beautiful, like her also. And, the signals that triggered my mind into knowing exactly what he was were his eyes. They shined like topaz gems, gleaming and perfect. His lashes were dark, and the way he looked up from them nearly sent me fainting toward the ground.

But as he spoke, he looked not at me, but Bella. _Of course_, I thought bitterly. Who wouldn't look at her-she's gorgeous. She had the most amazing body with those luscious curves, and looks that not even the highest paid supermodel in the world could compare. Her full lips were red and contrasted beautifully with her porcelain, doll-like skin and dark, shining hair. She was, technically, only two years older than me at barely eighteen.

But somehow, his eyes seemed to gaze past her beauty, inside of her. Like he was looking at her heart. "Bella..." He whispered, walking over to her. "_What has happened to you_?"

"W-What are y-you doing here?" If she could cry, she looked as if she would have been. She looked almost angry, her eyes darkening to a pitch black.

But then something about her changed. For the first time in my whole life, she looked...happy, as if this mysterious boy she was so worked up over brought joy with him. Something in her memories must have triggered, back before I was born and ruined her.

At least, that's what I always believed.

She never told me her story. Ever. All that I knew was that, when she did something stupid, she got pregnant and ran away. She told me that she ran away after I was born and we moved to California, where no one would be able to find us. She said it was hard there, living in so much sun and warmth all of the time. She said that she so rarely went out that no one recognized her in the grocery store or the book shop on the corner of our street.

But she never told me what I truly wanted to know. I wanted to know about her life before, her mom and dad-her school before now. Had she gone to college? Had she ever had a boyfriend? How long had she been...what she is? And how does that happen-getting turned into a vampire? Who did it to her?

The most recent thing that she told me was that she lived in Forks.

It was a really rainy place-all gloomy and dark. Small, too. A good place for her, she said. But for some reason, she was seemingly rather reluctant to move here, after checking the obituary first, for a reason I was a bit too freaked out to ask.

The house we were moving into was a bit on the small side-two bedrooms, she said, one bathroom. She said that I could have the master bedroom-she wouldn't need the big bed anyways. I obliged, taking the chance at the most comfortable room. It was a dull blue, the paint chipping in some of the spots. There was one nightstand, and a big dresser and a closet. Whoever had lived in here before was either 1) seriously needing some books on how to decorate, 2) blind, or 3) a guy. I decided that the last choice was most likely to be the right answer, as there was no sign of a woman _ever_ being in here.

The house itself was on the edge of a forest-a forest that Bella seemed to cringe at whenever she saw it. I had asked her if she wanted to explore it, and my immediate answer was, "No!...I mean, it might be dangerous, Luce. We...don't know what's in there."

But for the slightest moment, I saw her shiver.

"Ah-HEM!" I cleared my throat, breaking the intensity between them. They both looked over at me, confused. "Would someone like to tell me what is going on?" I asked, annoyed at the way I was being so openly ignored. I mean, how did Bella even know this guy anyways? I huffed and waited for an answer.

The beautiful boy looked at me for a moment, and then at Bella again, his gaze seeming pained to leave her face. "Who is that?" He asked, as if I weren't here. Yep, just talk about me-that's okay! I mean, who cares if I'm right here? No one! Let's just keep on talkin'! I smiled bitterly at my internal joke.

Bella smiled angrily. "_That_, Edward, is Lucy." She turned to me for a moment, narrowing her eyes. "Lucy, meet my old...acquaintance, Edward Cullen. Edward, meet _Lucia Emmanuelle Swan_, my daughter."

For the few seconds that everyone was silent, I swear I could have heard a cookie crumb drop to the ground and hit the earth. It was so quiet, I don't even think the birds were breathing.

Edward Cullen just stared at her with a dumbfounded expression. "I...you...how...?"

* * *

They were fighting.

I could hear them from upstairs in my new room, after Bella had told me to go up and unpack. I knew it was just so that she could get rid of me for the time that this Edward Cullen boy was talking to her, but I just humored her instead of adding to her stress. So now, I sat on the bed, suitcase lying open on the floor and not a single item of clothing in the drawers. I was eavesdropping, eager to hear what was going on.

They had been talking mostly about things I didn't understand, for the most part. They were talking about something that had to do with birthdays and biting, and sometimes spoke so fastly that I couldn't even begin to imagine what they were saying.

But then, their voices dropped low, below a whisper. I, far too absorbed in finding out what they were now talking about (something obviously secret and juicy, I hoped), stupidly crept downstairs to sneak a peak through the crack of the slightly ajar door. I expected them to be across the room from each other, absolutely livid and glaring at each other, eyes black. I expected murderous expressions and fire, or something like that.

But it was completely the opposite.

Bella was in his arms, and was hugging his neck to her as if it were for her own life, while he planted kisses down her tearless face and whispering words of comfort to her. He closed his eyes, rubbing her lower back, hoping to soothe her. She was crying and kept chanting to herself, "_Don't leave...don't leave...don't leave..."_And then again, "_Please_ _don't leave...don't..." _like a spell, while he tried to calm her down.

"Shh...it will be alright, Bella, love, shh...Everything will be fine..."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:**

Welp, here you go! Here's chapter four for whoever wanted it-those freakin EIGHT people who reviewed. Yeah, just so you know, I love them more than you! HAHA!!! So, go ahead and review and I'll love you!!

And I don't know if this will end up being co-worked on by LaBellaBella. I asked her about it the other night and she said that she would love to, so I don't know what will end up happening. After this chapter we'll probably start working together and coming up with ideas that weren't originally created by me, so...yeah. But you guys are in for a treat-she's a great writer!!!

But here is some news about what we are DEFINITELY working on together: it's a story called Love in the time of Drought. The name may change, but we don't know. We created a username together, and you can see it at **we-r-gonna-eachu,** but not quite yet. still in the process of making it, so...yeah! Can't really tell you what it's about yet, but maybe you'll hear about it from her, when she next posts to "By Moonlight"check it out!

* * *

"Shh...shh...Bella, it will be all right...Everything will be just fine."

Suddenly, I pushed him off of me, still sobbing those dry, tearless sobs. For a moment, a flicker of surprise at my newfound strength flitted across his face, before concerned washed his features. I wiped my eyes angrily, before realizing again that there was no water on my face. "No, Edward! You don't _know_ what happened!" I screamed at him. "You don't _understand_!"

I covered my face with my cold hands, trying to conceal my feelings from him-something that I had so perfected over the sixteen years I had been away from him and the world. But now it was as if all of the time had crumpled away, like fragile paper with one crush of the hand. All of the years of practice and curling into myself, just gone. Now it was only the present, with him here, however unlike the fantasy I had always dreamed of when I would finally see him again.

He looked as if he wanted to reach for me again, his stone-hard arm hesitant in the air, but seemed to decide against it, and dropped it to his side. He frowned, his coal black eyes, thirsty from the lack of feeding it looked he had been going through melting into me. "Bella..." he whispered, stepping towards me. "I _want_ to..."

"Get. _Out_." I hissed, the hurt and guilt and anger stinging in my voice. It was anything but what I wanted him to do. I wanted to hold him and let him kiss me and smell his sweet frangrance and feel his strong arms around me, and just let it be like old times, when I knew he was in love with me. But it wasn't like that now-it couldn't be. He didn't love me now-he just felt guilty that he had left so abruptly, or maybe that he had heard that I, like the fool I was, went after him and got lost in the woods. Or maybe it was that I never really got the chance to say goodbye to my best friend, or my almost-family. I would never know, because now I was sending him away.

My thoughts were jumbled in my mind, and I couldn't think or understand a single line of thinking. It was like I was watching a foreign movie without subtitles, and all I could hear was the complicated string of sounds that was probably a sentence, and I just wasn't comprehending.

But when I thought he would protest, or say something against it, he just turned around to walk to the door, without saying a word. I was right, I knew it. Once he saw that I didn't care, his concience was cleared and he could go home, probably to a prettier, more exciting girl who could give him what he wanted. Instead of me. Boring Bella, who was now thirty-something and a_ vampire_. Hell, not even my _scent_ was worth anything anymore. He was free to be happy and live an eternity without me.

But, yet again he surprised me. As he put his hand on the chipped, dull silver handle, he looked at me with a fire burning in his coal black eyes. He gazed at me for a long moment and shook his head. "I won't give up without a fight, love." He murmured, finally turning the handle.

I almost thought that I had dreamt it-him saying that. It was barely even said out loud, like it was just hanging in the open air. I didn't have a chance to say anything in reply, though, as he silently stepped into the warm, gloomy Forks' summer air. And just like that, he was gone.

"Well, that was wierd."

I jumped, Lucy startling me for the first time in my life. Her blonde hair (a mystery to me as to how she got it) was tied lazily up in a messy bun, her pink tank top clinging, too much for _my_ liking, to her body. I narrowed my eyes, becoming the mom I was. " Listen, miss, you aren't a prostitute. Shouldn't you be wearing more clothes than underwear out in the open?"

She groaned, rolling her eyes as she plopped down in the kitchen chair beside me. "I swear, you can be such a mom sometimes, Bella! _Some_ of us have to hold onto what we have. And besides," Her gaze lowered to my chest, which was pretty much concealed by the loose t-shirt I seemed to always sport. Old habits die hard, I thought. "Not _all_ of us have triple D cups!"

I glared at her, and then looked down at myself. "I do not have..." I trailed off, deciding to leave that thought where it was.

It had been strange at first, my new body. The perfection. I mean, as much as I had like to have thought that my figure was slim enough before, now I was a size _one,_ and very...full, in places I had never thought could be curvy in my case. My lips became fuller than ever, and my legs longer. My chocolate brown hair became shinier and silkier and my skin even paler. I was like a life size porcelain doll, pretty and without a beating heart. And I knew how beautiful I was-but it didn't matter. It was just a fact.

And besides, in my eyes I would never be beautiful enough or interesting enough to please the one person I wanted most to be with.

Finally, breaking the silence that had been looming uncomfortably in the air, Lucy looked at me questioningly and asked, "So...who was that guy?"

I almost choked on the oxygen I had been breathing in. Temporarily, I had forgotten about Edward's recent...visit, and hadn't been paying attention enoguh to see if Lucy had witnessed any of it. I wondered how _much_, exactly, she had seen, if any. I hesitated, but replied, hoping she wouldn't catch my worst skill in the world: lying. "He is my...cousin."

I could tell she wasn't satisfied by this. "Cousin? He called you love, mom."

She meant business-she called me 'mom' only when she wasn't kidding. "Well...that's because it's short for Lovett. You know, from that old play Sweeney Todd?"

She gave me an incredulous look. "Sweeney Todd?"

"Yes, Sweeney Todd. You see, in it there was a character named Mrs. Lovett, and of course, a character named Sweeney Todd. We loved it so much that we called each other just that. He called me 'Love' and I called him 'Todd'. But then he left...and took something very valuable of mine. Something he can never replace, and never make up for." He took my love and my soul with him. It was too late for him to fix me now.

She finally seemed satisfied, and nodded her head in approval of my story, not seeming to realize that everything was a lie. Then, her eyes brightened in realization. "So...wait a minute-he's your cousin? As in...you're _related_?"

I hesitated again, but nodded.

"That's so freaking _awesome_! He was _so hot_..." Her eyes dreamily lolled to the back of her head.

_My Lucy with_...I forgot how to breath for a moment, before remembering that I didn't need to. "_Edward Cullen_," I said, choking the name out. "Is _not_ right for you."

She narrowed her eyes. "Why not? So _you_ can get him? God, Bella, you only think of yourself, don't you?"

I felt a sharp pain sting inside of my stomach, the hurt stabbing at me. "No, Lucy...Lucy, please! Come here, Lucy!" I grabbed her into a tight hug-as tight as I could manage without hurting her. "Lucy, honey, I don't want him to hurt you..." I was trailing off into my own problems, I realized, and made a quick recovery. "Physically, I mean. Lucy, you nkow what he is. It's too dangerous-he could hurt you. It's already dangerous enough living with your own mother." I looked at her sadly, my face showing all of the grief and hatred I felt towards myself.

Her face softened, her light brown eyes-much lighter than I had once had-looking at me deeply. "I'll be careful, don't worry, silly!" And with that, she turned and headed upstairs to her new room, leaving me standing there alone to face my worries.

I sighed and looked at the door, where moments ago had left the only man I had ever loved.


End file.
